Live Play Data

Ancient Tomb

Land · Ultimate Masters (UMA)

Live Inclusion

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Times Brought

1912

Decks Running

1005

Median Cast Turn

3.0

Drawn → Played

77%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

35% of games where Ancient Tomb was played ended in a win for its controller, a +10.5 percentage-point lift over games where it stayed in the library, across 363 tracked participations.

Ancient Tomb is in 8% of Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, appearing in 1005 of the 12009 distinct decks that have played a tracked game. That figure reflects colorless identity: any commander can run it, and many do.

The headline story is pace. Median first activation lands on turn 3.0, and 53% of drawn copies are played on the same turn they are drawn. That same-turn rate signals how immediately players want two free colorless mana in play. The 2 life cost is real, but at 376 casts across 1331 tracked games, players clearly judge it worth paying.

The win-rate signal is directional and the sample is large enough to take seriously. Games where Ancient Tomb hit the battlefield showed a +10.5 point lift over games where it sat unplayed in the library. The card is a structural accelerant: it pulls your curve forward, and that advantage compounds.

At a glance

8% of tracked Commander decks include Ancient Tomb
T3.0 median turn it first hits the battlefield
53% of drawn copies played on the same turn they are drawn
77% of drawn copies reach the battlefield before the game ends
89% battlefield stickiness once played
531 distinct players have brought Ancient Tomb to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=376

19%

18%

17%

13%

10%

20%

T6-9

T10+

Median 3.0 P25 2 · P75 5 · max 17

Cast same turn as drawn 53%

The "good card" funnel

1912 brought · 531 players

Brought to game

1912

Ever drawn

491

Reached battlefield

376

Still on board at game end

333

77%

Of 1912 Ancient Tombs brought to games, 491 were drawn, 376 of those were played, and the large majority remained on the battlefield through end of game.

≥ +5.5pp

Players who cast this card win 35% of the time (n=363) , vs 25% when it never left the library (n=1237).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 40% (n=106) — about the same as leaving it in the library. Those players survived long enough to draw it, so the gap above is about the card resolving, not just about surviving.

Observed gap +10.5pp; 95% confidence interval +5.5pp to +15.4pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

547 instances

3.1%

Library

60.9%

Battlefield

14.8%

Graveyard

6.6%

Exile

Ancient Tomb finishes on the battlefield far more often than it stays in the library, because it is a land played early and rarely removed. Most singleton cards in 100-card decks never leave the library, but Ancient Tomb bucks that trend.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

1 Zhulodok, Void Gorger 16 decks
2 Krenko, Mob Boss 13 decks
3 Molecule Man 12 decks
4 The Ur-Dragon 12 decks
5 Kenrith, the Returned King 11 decks
6 Ulalek, Fused Atrocity 10 decks
7 Giada, Font of Hope 8 decks
8 Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima 8 decks
9 Kefka, Court Mage // Kefka, Ruler of Ruin 8 decks
10 Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy 8 decks

The commander spread is wide and color-agnostic: Ancient Tomb's colorless identity lets it slot into any deck, and the top commanders list reflects that breadth, from five-color goodstuff to mono-red aggro.

Frequently Asked

How often is Ancient Tomb drawn in a Commander game?

Across 1331 tracked games where Ancient Tomb was in the deck, it was drawn 26% of the time. That is consistent with a singleton in a 100-card deck. Of 491 copies that reached a player's hand, 77% were played before the game ended. The remainder were mostly held in games that ended before the player could act.

What turn does Ancient Tomb usually hit the battlefield?

Median first play lands on turn 3.0. The distribution is front-loaded: the single most common turn is turn 1, which corresponds to players who kept it in their opening hand. The interquartile range sits between turns 2 and 5, meaning the bulk of activations happen in the early game where the tempo from two free mana matters most.

Does playing Ancient Tomb actually improve your win rate?

Games where Ancient Tomb was played show a +10.5 percentage-point win-rate lift over games where it stayed unplayed in the library. With 363 cast-bucket observations and 1237 library-bucket observations, this is a well-sampled signal, not a fluke. Read it as a consistent directional advantage rather than a guarantee: many other factors drive game outcomes.

How quickly do players deploy Ancient Tomb after drawing it?

53% of drawn copies are played on the same turn they are drawn. The median hand-hold time is 0 turns, meaning the typical play pattern is draw it and play it immediately. Players almost never sit on it, which makes sense: a land that taps for two is most valuable early, and holding it rarely gains anything.

Is Ancient Tomb banned anywhere relevant to Commander players?

Ancient Tomb is legal in Commander (including multiplayer and Oathbreaker) and legal in Legacy, Vintage, Timeless, and Premodern. It is banned in Duel Commander, which is the competitive 1v1 variant with a 20-life starting total. The 1v1 ban reflects how punishing a two-mana land is at that life total. It is also banned in Historic Brawl.

How concentrated is this data among individual players?

The data is well-spread. 531 distinct players have brought Ancient Tomb to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for 3% of all instances. With a concentration that low across such a large player pool, the stats are not being skewed by one person's play habits. That breadth is a genuine strength of this dataset.